Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – Members of the House of Representatives said on Tuesday that they would speed up the creation of a special committee to oversee the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) to prevent possible abuse by the government in next year's elections.
The establishment of such a committee is mandated by Law No. 17/2011 on state intelligence, but neither the House's Commission I overseeing security nor the spy agency have reached an agreement on the monitoring mechanism.
The lawmakers said they planned to set up the committee by the end of this year at the latest. They said the creation of such a committee had become more urgent following allegations made by members of an organization founded by former Democratic Party (PD) chairman Anas Urbaningrum that BIN officials had prevented PD co-founder Subur Budhisantoso from attending a seminar organized by them.
BIN and Subur have denied the allegations, saying that the incident was merely the result of miscommunication. However, the claims have raised concerns that the government might abuse the intelligence body to advance its interests in the upcoming legislative and presidential elections.
"Political friction will most likely intensify as we approach the elections. We don't want BIN to be used to serve any interests, thus the monitoring committee must urgently ensure that the spy agency remains impartial," Golkar Party lawmaker Tantowi Yahya said. "BIN must serve the country, not only the people in power."
The 2011 State Intelligence Law stipulates that an external monitoring committee should consist of 13 lawmakers from the House's Commission I and is tasked with ensuring that BIN members comply with the institution's code of conduct and existing regulations in the country in carrying out their work.
The 13 lawmakers would comprise the four Commission I leaders – Mahfudz Siddiq of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita of Golkar, Tubagus Hasanuddin of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Ramadhan Pohan of the PD – as well as representatives from each of the nine party factions in the commission.
However, none of the factions has nominated anyone to represent them in the monitoring committee.
According to Article 43 of the law, representatives of the party factions must not divulge any information on BIN surveillance activities even to their respective factions.
Among the contentious issues discussed by the House and BIN are whether the former should be involved in the purchase of wiretapping devices and the procedure for inquiries into alleged misconduct.
Commission I chairman Mahfudz said the monitoring committee should be involved in the process of procuring wiretapping devices from foreign countries.
"The procurement of wiretapping devices, for example, would definitely involve politics. We would let BIN decide the kind of device it needs, but we must be involved in determining from which countries such devices are procured," Mahfudz told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
Mahfudz added that Commission I and BIN were also still discussing regulations on the procedures for wiretapping as the country had yet to draft a law on the matter.